Dr Giles Egerton is staying with his friend the Rev. Edwin Vardon for a quiet weekend in the country when he is called on a mysterious midnight visit to Brockhurst, home of Colonel Leigh and his wife Wilma. The Colonel’s wife has been taken ill and Egerton is shocked to discover unmistakable symptoms of poisoning. Egerton suspects the Colonel himself of the attempted murder and his suspicions seem confirmed when he disappears without trace. But could bluff, genial Colonel Leigh really be responsible? Who else in the peaceful little town of Bullington could have any possible motive for trying to remove the most popular woman in the county? As more attempts are made on Wilma’s life, Egerton joins forces with a London detective (and his talented secretary) to discover the culprit before it is too late.

Originally published for Collins’s Crime Club series in 1931, this is a vintage murder mystery from the golden age of crime fiction.